Bath drain lift wire connection

ABSTRACT

The disclosure herein relates to bath tub drains and particularly to that class known as trip lever bath tub drains, wherein a single drain may be supplied for tubs of various sizes in which the overflow opening is at varying heights from one tub to the other, and it is desired to mount the bath tub drain thereon without preliminary setting of the stopper means therein, but relying upon adjustment of the connection of the stopper means with the operating means after assembly and upon insertion of the respective parts, it being desired to establish the adjustment and once established, to maintain the same without subsequent attention. The bath tub drain hereof is therefore provided with means to effect the adjustment of the plunger in the trip lever upon manipulation of the control means therefor initially in view of the connection of the lift means with the plunger, the aspect of maintaining the position by reason of the connection of the parts being important.

[ 51 Sept. 26, 1972 United States Patent Christiansen BATH DRAIN LIFTWIRE Primary Examiner-Frederick L. Matteson CONNECTION AssistantExaminer-Donald B. Massenberg Attorney-Robb & Robb [72] lnventor: GeraldE. Christiansen, Flora, lnd.

[73] Assignee: Stephen A. Young, Monticello, lnd.

Filed:

[57] ABSTRACT The disclosure herein relates to bath tub drains and Oct.30, 1970 particularly to that class known as trip lever bath tub [2] 1Appl' 85,549 drains, wherein a single drain may be supplied for tubs ofvarious sizes in which the overflow opening is at varying heights fromone tub to the other, and it is desired to mount the bath tub drainthereon without preliminary setting of the stopper means therein, butrelying upon adjustment of the connection of the stopper means with theoperating means after assembly and upon insertion of the respectiveparts, it being desired to establish the adjustment and onceestablished, to maintain the same without subsequent 32 03% 22 8 l/ 54112/ mm M372 000 E2 5 WM T 2 N m E .m% d T 2 e A mu .H 0.. mm C S UN 5E e U. C T N N n A NN" e an" r. T. I m m R E me n "u N 1 m u h .w UhFill. 11 2 8 6 555 5 [ii .I.

attention. The bath tub drain hereof is therefore vided with means toeffect the adjustment of prothe

plunger in the trip lever upon manipulation of the control meanstherefor initially in view of the connection of the lift means with theplunger, the aspect of maintaining the position by reason of theconnection of the parts being important.

6 Claims, 3 Drawing Figures 362 5 2 086 6 /828/8 l/75/5 5 4100/9/00/ wumh M242 m2 mm m "n u "0 n e d t nflmw w fm e k Z homm d MHTNSJWP 9373285623034456 99999999 HHH yyWURZbZ 1 9648923 m l8 80 5mm 059 V WQAJ 1 112223 FOREIGN PATENTS OR APPLICATIONS 8/1932Germany...................... 4/203 IIIIII F n l/dlnl l 1 BATH DRAINLIFT WIRE CONNECTION OBJECTS OF THE INVENTION It is a principal objectof this invention to provide improved means to interconnect theoperating devices of a trip lever bath drain with the plunger providedtherein, which plunger controls the outflow of water through the draintee, so that once a setting for shutting off the water is established,it will be maintained and it will not be necessary to attempt topreliminarily set the same with the resultant trial and error problemsarising therefrom, not to mention the wasted effort involved in suchtrial and error methods. I

A further object of the invention is to provide a trip lever drain inwhich the interconnection between the plunger thereof and the lift wireis of such a nature that upon an application of a predetermined amountof pressure, adjustment therebetween will be effected and subsequent useof the device will not require such pressure, and therefore the onceestablished connection and adjustment may be maintained.

A more particular object of the invention is to provide a novelformation of the lift wire and its configuration -to maintain the onceestablished position of a gripping unit in connection therewith, so thatwhile adjustment may be efiected, substantially greater effort isrequired to effect such adjustment than is expended normally during useof the device to control the flow of water through the waste arm of thetrip lever bath drain, of the class described herein.

Other and further objects of the invention will be understood from aconsideration of the specification ap pended hereto and disclosed in thedrawing, wherein:

FIG. 1 is a somewhat diagrammatic view, partly in section, illustratingthe general arrangement of a trip lever bath drain in position on a tub.

FIG. 2 is a greatly enlarged view, illustrating the gripping unit inplace on the lift wire, being fragmentary in large measure.

FIG. 3 is a greatly enlarged cross-sectional view of the lift wire andformation for maintaining the gripping unit in place.

DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION Referring to FIG. 1, a trip lever ofsubstantially conventional form is illustrated in which the same ismounted on a bath tub generally indicated at 1, such trip leverincluding a waste tee 2, connected to the drain leading from the tailpiece 3, and extending upwa'rdly from the tee 2 the overflow arm4,-which consists of a lower tube 5 and an upper tube 6 adjustablerelative one another by means of suitable slip joint arrangement, andcontrolled by a nut 7; the upper end of the overflow arm 4 having theoverflow head 8 connected therewith leading to the overflow on the tubI, and maintained in position by a face plate 9 of conventionalconfiguration, which face plate 9 inturn is provided with a lever 10 forrotational movement about a pivot 11 mounted in the face plate 9 andconnected at its inner end within the head 8 to a lift wire 12, whichlift wire extends downwardly into and through the tee 2 previouslymentioned.

A waste arm 13 extends from the side. of the tee 2 and is connected to awaste shoe 14 leading to the waste outlet of the tub in the usual way.

The tee 2 is provided with a plunger 15 of generally conventionalconfiguration, it being a cylindrical part, hollow at the bottom with aseat 16 thereon to engage a mating seat 17 formed in a tee. The plunger15 is intended to shut off the flow of water to the waste arm 13 and inorder to effect the draining of the tub, the plunger 15 must be raised.

The plunger 15 is provided at its upper end with a bail 18 extendingacross the same, this bail having an opening through which the lift wire12 extends downwardly.

In order to effect an interconnection between the lift wire 12 andplunger 15, a gripping unit generally designated 19 is shown as beingemplaced thereon, and in much enlarged form in FIG. 2.

Referring therefore to FIG. 2, the lift wire 12 is shown with thegripping unit 19 positioned thereon, such gripping unit 19 comprising agripping portion 20 and a second gripping portion 21 of substantiallyidentical configuration, being a spirally wound coil spring-like memberin each case, but of the opposite hand in each case likewise.

Integral with each one of the portions 20 and 21 is the bail engagingsection 22 which, as seen in FIG. 1, passes around one side of the bailto maintain the spacing of the portions 20 and 21.

Although the gripping portions 20 and 21 and the gripping unit 19 havebeen contemplated previously, the same have been used in conjunctionwith a smooth wire 12 or under the most extreme circumstances with awire which has been deformed in some manner.

The problem which was raised by this previous configuration was that thegripping action of the respective portions 20 and 21 was not alwaysuniform, and thus after use the plunger 15 moved with respect to thewire 12 and thus operation of the handle 10 did not always shut off thewater through the waste arm 13. 7 Thus, the instant invention providesagainst such an improper operation by means of the novel configurationof the lift wire 12, which as shown in FIG. 3, is usually a round wireand by way of example about 0.090 inches in diameter nominally.

In order to provide for a non-slipping interengagement of the grippingportions 20 and 21, the wire (according to this invention) is providedwith a chord-like formation asviewed in FIG. 3 by suitable rolling dies,which cause the metal of which the lift wire is formed to assume theprotuberant configuration suggested at 23 in FIG. 3, the diameter of theareas involving the protuberances 23 being increased effectively bymanipulation of the equipment for forming such form ations so that inactuality the diameter of this portion across the protuberances is about0.093 inches.

It will be seen that these diametrically opposed protuberances will thusprovide gripping areas since they are spaced uniformly along on theopposite ends of the diameter as suggested in FIG. 2, and since they areformed so as to be spaced an amount equal to the pitch of the spiralgripping portions 20. and 21, such gripping portions will inter-engageand inter-lock substantially therewith.-

It will be further observed that since these portions are preferablyformed only on opposite ends of the diameter so to speak, they willinter-engage with the spiral formations 20 and 21, irrespective of thehand in which such spiral formations are wound.

Thus, for example, if the spiral formation 20 is wound in thecounter-clockwise manner, and the portion 21 in a clockwise manner, itwill not make any difference in the interlocking action between therespective parts since the chord-like formation is relatively short inextent and the protuberance provided thereby is not affected by the handwhich might be involved in the inter-engaging gripping portions 20 and21.

It will therefore be seen that the position of the gripping portion 20will be maintained as will that of the portion 21 and the connection 22in passing around the bail 18 will position the lift wire with respectthereto.

Whereas it might be contemplated that a threading of the lift wire 12would accomplish a similar purpose, it will be pointed out that this isnot the fact since such a thread would be of one hand or the other, andeither one or the other of the gripping portions 20 or 21 would notthereby inter-engage properly therewith. It is not desired to have thegripping portions 21 and 20 of the same hand because there is anunscrewing tendency possible to take place as between the wire andgripping unit which is counteracted by the use of the portions disclosedon the opposite hand.

It is emphasized that the spacing of the protuberances 23 corresponds tothe pitch of the spiral to which said gripping portions are formed.

When the trip lever is applied to the tub 1, with the overflow arm 4suitably adjusted and fixed in position as well as the waste arm 13likewise arranged similarly, subsequently insertion of the lift wire 12with the plunger 15 attached thereto to the overflow opening in whichthe face plate 9 is seated, will facilitate proper closing by suitabledownward pressure upon the plunger 15 against the seat 17, makingpossible subsequent manipulation of the handle 10 to raise and lower theplunger through the same distance each time and effect suitable closingto prevent undesired draining of the tub.

It is noted that the protuberances are designed to extend beyond thecircumference of the wire so that they will inter-engage with the coilsof the gripping portions irrespective of the hand of said spiralformation.

1 claim:

1. In bath drain construction of the class described,

in combination, a waste tee, an overflow arm extending upwardlytherefrom, a waste arm extending sidewardly from the tee, a drain seatin said tee, a plunger operable in said tee to control drain flowthrough the said seat, means in said overflow arm to operate saidplunger toward and away from said seat, said means including a liftwire, means to connect the lift wire and plunger comprising a bailon'the plunger and a gripping unit having resilient coil-spring-likegripping portions engaging the lift wire on each side of the bail, and aconnection between such portions and means to non-rotatively, adjustablylongitudinally position said gripping unit on said wire including aseries of thread-like elements formed on the wire spaced to correspondwith the spacing of the gripping portions aforesaid, said nonrotativelongitudinal movement of the gripping portions of said unit along thethread-like elements being required to effect proper seating adjustmentof the plunger in the tee, and being facilitated by the relativedimensions of the said portions and elements and the fi l iiie asclaimed in claim 1, wherein the thread-like elements comprise chord-likeprotuberances.

3. The combination as claimed in claim 2, wherein the protuberances arediametrically opposed and extend outwardly beyond the basiccircumference of the wire.

4. The combination as claimed in claim 1, wherein the resilient grippingportions are cylindrically arranged and the thread-like elementscomprise protuberances formed to extend out of the surface of the liftwire into engagement with the said portions at intervals ofsubstantially I".

5. The combination as claimed in claim 1, wherein the resilient grippingportion at one side of the bail is of the opposite hand to that on theother side thereof, and the thread-like elements on the wire are formedto engage the portions and afford substantially equal resistance todisplacement of each of said portions along the said wire.

6. The combination as claimed in claim 1, wherein the gripping portionsare of spiral form, certain of the same being of opposite hands, andcylindrically arranged to closely encircle the lift wire.

1. In bath drain construction of the class described, in combination, awaste tee, an overflow arm extending upwardly therefrom, a waste armextending sidewardly from the tee, a drain seat in said tee, a plungeroperable in said tee to control drain flow through the said seat, meansin said overflow arm to operate said plunger toward and away from saidseat, said means including a lift wire, means to connect the lift wireand plunger comprising a bail on the plunger and a gripping unit havingresilient coil-spring-like gripping portions engaging the lift wire oneach side of the bail, and a connection between such portions and meansto non-rotatively, adjustably longitudinally position said gripping uniton said wire including a series of thread-like elements formed on thewire spaced to correspond with the spacing of the gripping portionsaforesaid, said non-rotative longitudinal movement of the grippingportions of said unit along the thread-like elements being required toeffect proper seating adjustment of the plunger in the tee, and beingfacilitated by the relative dimensions of the said portions and elementsand the tension in the portions.
 2. The combination as claimed in claim1, wherein the thread-like elements comprise chord-like protuberances.3. The combination as claimed in claim 2, wherein the protuberances arediametrically opposed and extend outwardly beyond the basiccircumference of the wire.
 4. The combination as claimed in claim 1,wherein the resilient gripping portions are cylindrically arranged andthe thread-like elements comprise protuberances formed to extend out ofthe surface of the lift wire into engagement with the said portions atIntervals of substantially 180*.
 5. The combination as claimed in claim1, wherein the resilient gripping portion at one side of the bail is ofthe opposite hand to that on the other side thereof, and the thread-likeelements on the wire are formed to engage the portions and affordsubstantially equal resistance to displacement of each of said portionsalong the said wire.
 6. The combination as claimed in claim 1, whereinthe gripping portions are of spiral form, certain of the same being ofopposite hands, and cylindrically arranged to closely encircle the liftwire.